Date of Conferral

4-9-2025

Date of Award

April 2025

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Chet Lesniak

Abstract

Church attendance rates have decreased for evangelical churches over the last decade, with the most notable decline among millennials. This decline is attributed to millennial shifts away from traditional views and new understandings of identity. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how millennials who have left evangelical churches describe their sexual and religious identities. Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory and Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory, focusing on an individual’s identity and the groups to which they belong, informed its theoretical framework. These theories offered perspective on the experiences of those who carry intersecting identities within churches that do not accept identities outside their traditional norms. A purposive sample of 10 participants who met the criteria of being born between 1981 and 1996 and who left the evangelical church Semistructured interviews were conducted and transcribed,then analyzed using thematic coding. The analysis found that religious identity was experienced as a belief in a higher power, but not an evangelical God. Sexual identity was described as the experience of being a true self, an open and free self, or a safe self. The analysis also suggested that the current political climate, as well as evangelical purity culture themes, impacted identity. Positive social change may emerge through the facilitation of conversations with churches about how to welcome millennials with intersecting identities. Such approaches may help those individuals who have been adversely impacted, particularly in terms of their mental and sexual health, as well as their self-esteem.

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